Privacy Policy

Effective Date: August 9, 2026

On-Device Processing

LocalPhotos is built around the principle of data privacy. All indexing, face recognition, duplicate detection, and search run locally on your Mac. Your photos are never uploaded to LocalPhotos servers — we operate no cloud backend, and we never receive your media or metadata.

Network Use

LocalPhotos runs on your own Mac. Photo analysis and organization stay local, except for optional place names and maps, which are off by default. When you turn them on, the app sends a photo's exact GPS coordinates — never the photo itself — to Apple to resolve a place name; map viewport requests go to Apple Maps to load the area you view. The companion apps apply the same opt-in in release-test builds, using Apple services on iPhone and iPad and Google services on Android. Indexing, faces, search, and duplicate detection stay on the device.

Other Optional Connections

LocalPhotos also uses the network only when you choose features that connect to your own equipment or accounts:

• Direct device sync: pairing a companion app sends encrypted data over your local Wi-Fi or a private network you control, such as Tailscale, directly to your own iPhone, iPad, or Android device — never through LocalPhotos servers.
• iCloud backup and Space Saver: your Mac communicates with your own iCloud Photos library through Apple, keeping that traffic within your Apple account.

Companion apps are currently in release testing and are not yet on the App Store or Google Play. Feature availability depends on the version installed, and these connections remain optional.

Face Recognition & Machine Learning

Face recognition, object detection, text recognition, and duplicate scanning run on the device: Apple frameworks on Mac, iPhone, and iPad, and on-device Google ML Kit models on Android. Face crops, embeddings, and derived analysis stay in the app's private storage or the metadata location you choose; assigned names may sync only between devices you pair. Place-name lookup, maps, and Android ML Kit diagnostics are the specific network exceptions disclosed above and below.

Data Collection

We collect zero personal data, analytics, crash logs, or telemetry — there are no LocalPhotos servers, and we never receive your photos or usage. One third-party exception applies only to the Android companion: its on-device machine-learning library, Google ML Kit (used for faces, text, and object tags), sends Google anonymous technical diagnostics — device model and library performance, never your photos or their contents — which Google provides no way to switch off. The Mac and iPhone apps use Apple's on-device frameworks and send no such diagnostics. Your media library remains strictly yours.

This Website

This website does not use cookies, advertising, or analytics/tracking scripts. As with any website, our hosting provider may automatically record standard technical request logs (such as IP address and browser type) for security and to operate the site. If you email us for support, we use your message and address only to respond to you.

Changes to This Policy

As our application evolves, we may update this policy. Because we collect no data, you will simply see the updated policy inside the application and on this website. By continuing to use the software, you consent to our entirely offline, privacy-first architecture.

Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding your privacy, please reach out through our Contact page.